CHAPTER IX. HYBRIDISM.

3. LAWS GOVERNING THE STERILITY OF FIRST CROSSES AND OF HYBRIDS. (continued)

The hybrids raised from two species which are very difficult to cross, and
which rarely produce any offspring, are generally very sterile; but the
parallelism between the difficulty of making a first cross, and the
sterility of the hybrids thus produced--two classes of facts which are
generally confounded together--is by no means strict. There are many
cases, in which two pure species, as in the genus Verbascum, can be united
with unusual facility, and produce numerous hybrid offspring, yet these
hybrids are remarkably sterile. On the other hand, there are species which
can be crossed very rarely, or with extreme difficulty, but the hybrids,
when at last produced, are very fertile. Even within the limits of the
same genus, for instance in Dianthus, these two opposite cases occur.

The fertility, both of first crosses and of hybrids, is more easily
affected by unfavourable conditions, than is that of pure species. But the
fertility of first crosses is likewise innately variable; for it is not
always the same in degree when the same two species are crossed under the
same circumstances; it depends in part upon the constitution of the
individuals which happen to have been chosen for the experiment. So it is
with hybrids, for their degree of fertility is often found to differ
greatly in the several individuals raised from seed out of the same capsule
and exposed to the same conditions.

By the term systematic affinity is meant, the general resemblance between
species in structure and constitution. Now the fertility of first crosses,
and of the hybrids produced from them, is largely governed by their
systematic affinity. This is clearly shown by hybrids never having been
raised between species ranked by systematists in distinct families; and on
the other hand, by very closely allied species generally uniting with
facility. But the correspondence between systematic affinity and the
facility of crossing is by no means strict. A multitude of cases could be
given of very closely allied species which will not unite, or only with
extreme difficulty; and on the other hand of very distinct species which
unite with the utmost facility. In the same family there may be a genus,
as Dianthus, in which very many species can most readily be crossed; and
another genus, as Silene, in which the most persevering efforts have failed
to produce between extremely close species a single hybrid. Even within
the limits of the same genus, we meet with this same difference; for
instance, the many species of Nicotiana have been more largely crossed than
the species of almost any other genus; but Gartner found that N. acuminata,
which is not a particularly distinct species, obstinately failed to
fertilise, or to be fertilised, by no less than eight other species of
Nicotiana. Many analogous facts could be given.